Gulf Breeze Celebrate the Arts Festival set to make a comeback
With the Pensacola Bay Bridge fully opened, the “Gulf Breeze Celebrates the Arts Festival” is poised to return to its former glory.
“We came back last year and had a very good show,” said Ralph Thomas, the festival’s coordinator. “The artists sold well.”
Now in its 27th year, the festival is March 25-26 at Gulf Breeze High School. The event was reprised in 2022 after a two-year hiatus from the pandemic and the belated completion of the Bay Bridge. Thomas, a prolific wood turner, conceded that festival attendance had dropped after the interim but was optimistic of a continued comeback. More than 90 artists in a variety of media have applied for a booth this year. Additionally, only about a third of them are local, giving the festival a more national status.
“We have artists from California, Montana, Colorado, and 10 other states out of the southeast region,” said Thomas.
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The festival debuted in 1994 and is hosted by the city of Gulf Breeze and Gulf Breeze Artists, Inc., a cohort of about 40 artists. Its original mission is to raise funds for the community through exhibition fees and a silent auction of art created by GBAI. To date the festival has raised over $130,000 for local school art enhancement programs, Gulf Breeze High School JROTC, and a Pensacola State College art scholarship fund. The Waggy Tail Society, a student-led club at GBHS, adds to that charitable spirit.
“They run the artists’ breakfast for us and in return we give them a booth,” Thomas explained. “They sell dog toys and treats. The money they raise goes back to the Humane Society.”
The artists’ booths will be set up in the high school parking lot as the city lacks a centralized green space like Seville Square. Thomas noted that the festival can’t use Shoreline Park due to its lack of parking, but the visibility on Highway 98 draws more visitors. Like most art festivals, the exhibiting artists are quietly competing for cash prizes, a $3,000 pot that includes $1,000 for Best of Show.
“We usually try to get one of the top artists or one of the professors at Pensacola State College or UWF to judge the show,” said Thomas.
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This year’s judge is Randy New, a local sculptor who was president of Artel Gallery for a few years. A retired Escambia and Santa Rosa County Public School art teacher, he’s known for his public bronze sculptures like Yancy Spencer at Pensacola Beach and the Global War on Terror Memorial at Veterans Park that depicts a flying eagle clutching an actual shard of steel truss from the World Trade Center. And New isn’t new at judging art shows and festivals.
“I like to make sure I’m being fair to artists that create something outside of my particular taste,“ said New. “I want the list of winners to include different styles, genres, media, etc.”
But the art continues beyond the parking lot.
“The festival has an indoor art show,” said Thomas. “It’s for local artists that don’t have enough art or don’t want to do a festival.”
Set in the high school band room, about 70-80 works are expected. Fuller Brown, one the festival’s founders, will show at least one of his works. Last year, his painting of an angler busily gutting a fish won the People’s Choice Award. He’s regarded as a maverick in local art history.
“I was with Pensacola Artists, Inc. which started Quayside Gallery,” he recalled. “In 1994, I got involved with Gulf Breeze Artists, Inc., and was the director of the Gulf Breeze Arts festival for nine years. I loved it. When that festival started, I would go around to other festivals around the area and personally invite artists to enter ours.”
His ambassadorship caught the attention of Sunshine Artists magazine which dubbed the festival, “A diamond in the Rough” in its second year.
Originally from Springfield, Missouri, Brown was a military brat whose family settled in the area in the 1950’s. From being an artistic child, he earned an MFA at Memphis State University and focused on portraiture. He served in the Army for four years and married in 1974.
“My wife was in the Navy and so I was able to travel wherever she went,” said Brown. “I had my own business doing portraits.”
Brown estimates that he did over 2,000 portraits in three years of passersby at Westwood Mall in the 1970’s, one of whom became his spouse. He points to local artists like Autry Dye, Bill Clover and Carl Duke as his mentors. He was also a respected teacher having taught at Pensacola State College. Currently, he gives painting classes at Trinity Lutheran Church in Cantonment.
The festival also recognizes children’s art with a student show by Santa Rosa County school students. Over a thousand of their works will be displayed in the high school’s art wing.
Circling back to the outdoor show, some of the artists are exhibiting at their first festival. Lindsay Keeling will show about 30 of her paintings in her inaugural booth. She is a new member of First City Arts Center’s Gallery 1060 where she has a studio. She paints realistic, non-specific landscapes, especially in soft blues and purples.
“I want to capture the energy of the horizon,” she said. “Some are more energetic and colorful while some are more peaceful.”
Keeling has a painting that was accepted into the annual Members’ Show at the Pensacola Museum of Art and another one in a group exhibit at Luna Fine Art at Pensacola Beach. The festival is the next chapter for Keeling who left her day job to pursue her artistic dream.
“I was working full time in finance,” she said. “I was burnt out and it was time to come back to my creative self. I took a terrifying leap of faith and here I am.”
Gulf Breeze Celebrates the Arts Festival
When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., March 25; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., March 26
Where: Gulf Breeze High School parking lot, 675 Gulf Breeze Pkwy.
More information: Gulfbreezearts.com
Cost: Free admission and parking
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Gulf Breeze Celebrate the Arts Festival 2023 set to make a comeback
